Death of Tom Congress

The West Australian Newspaper Mon 28th Sept. 1936

Fatality in Barrack-st. Shop.

Frederick John Thomas Congress (45), bicycle manufacturer, was found dead at the premises of Congress Cycles. Barrack-street, Perth, on Saturday morning. It was supposed that Mr. Congress. while working late on Friday night. was overcome by gas fumes when en- gaged in stove-enamelling the frame of a bicycle.

About 6 o’clock on Friday evening, when Arthur John Horlin, an employee of Congress Cycles. left the prem- ises in Barrack-street, Mr. Congress was still busy in the shop.

Wearing his apron, Mr. Congress was seen in Barrack-street about 9 o’clock. Shortly after 9.30 o’clock gas fumes were detected by the proprietor of a shop next door to the cycle shop, and he communicated with the Electricity and Gas Department. He was advised to ring a certain telephone number, and, on doing so, was given instructions how to turn off the gas leading to his establishment, because at that time it was thought that the gas leak might be in his premises. He was unable to find the handle of the gas tap, and about 15 minutes later he again communicated with the gas complaints office. Shortly afterwards, he found the handle and turned off the supply of gas to his premises. In spite of this precaution, a strong smell of gas invaded the shop but, having done his best to trace the leak, the proprietor completed his work in his shop and left for his home later in the night.

Anxiety concerning the non-appearance of Mr. Congress at his home in Monmouth-street, North Perth, caused his daughter, Jean (16), to go to the Barrack-street shop about 7.30 am. on Saturday. As the front door of the premises was locked, the girl went to a lane and entered the premises from the rear. The shop was reeking with gas, but the girl made her way to the front of the premises, where she saw her father lying face downwards near the enamelling oven. She opened the Barrack-street door of the shop and called the police. The police found that Congress was lying near the gas jet of the enamel- ling oven, and the gas was turned full on. In one of the man’s hands was a box of matches. and it was assumed that he had turned on the gas and was about to light the jet when he collapsed and was overcome by fumes.

Inside the gas oven was the frame of a freshly enamelled bicycle and a paint pot and brush on a nearby bench indicated that the frame had just been enamelled.

Constable Gault turned off the gas, and Constable Bluck removed Congress in an ambulance to the Perth Hospital, where a doctor said that death had occurred several hours earlier. The City Coroner was notified.

Remembering 'Smithy'

John Smith was a character, the cheeky chap in shorts.

John told me his earliest bike memory was when he was four years old. His father - Herbert Harry Edward Smith, a timber worker from Dwellingup won the hotly contested 1932 Collie Donnybrook race. John was holding his mother’s apron watching his father cross the line.

“They had to hose him down to find out who he was because he was covered in mud”

John got into cycle racing wen he was 16, only after his father made him buy his own bike - he paid 2/6 for it. He soon started out at South Bunbury Cycling Club.
John trained at night with a battery torch, it lit up the road enough to see the kangaroos as they hopped across his path. The roads were pea gravel with little traffic and he trained every day. He called himself a bit of a “cart horse”, or a domestique for much of his later years but in his late teens and early 20s he was a sure thing.

In 1948 the Collie Donnybrook race had only three miles (5km) of bitumen, the other 65 miles (104km) of was gravel. John was leading, but he punctured one mile from the finish line and his father lost a £1008 bet. A quiet ride home that night.

1949 was unlucky too; “The group had just rode off the bitumen and it turned to gravel.” The group bunched and slowed. A chap called Teddy Lewis went into a pothole. John went over the top and broke his collarbone. Ouch. “I got up and rode one handed to Donnybrook and back”

John’s job on the railways was tough too. He started out as a coal shoveller and finished up a train driver. “I took a job on that coal stage actually to get fit for quite a few months. Me and another chap we used to shovel 70 ton of coal, every day, and after a day shovelling a coal I used to go for 100 mile rides”

John kept a treasured telegram. It is dated 18 August 1951, the day before the 1951 Midland 100 Race - a few months after his 23rd birthday. It is addressed to Johnny Smith care of Eddie Barron, Flash Cycles, Midland Junction. The telegram reads “Be cunning good luck, Dad”. He won the race, £100 and a handsome trophy.
Johnny was cunning and cheeky, but always making friends.

As a veteran John rode across Australia and competed strongly in the West Coast Vets and Griffin Tour. He won the WA Apples & Pears Veteran Tour 1986, 55-59 age category.

John dropped into handicapping after volunteering one night when the lap scorer was off sick. As the handicapper and starter at WA races for over 20 years John took “constructive criticism” from every second rider about the handicap he’d given them. He knew bike racing. He had lived it.
John said “Back in the 1950s I used to ride off scratch on my own. Its funny nowadays they don’t like riding on their own, or even with less than ten in a bunch. They don’t like gravel either. Oh, they’re soft!”

Toby Hodgson

Bill Taylor - Memories Of My Cycling Days

Bill Taylor’s handwritten reminiscence was kindly provided by his daughter Gail McNab.
Born George William Henry Taylor he was known as Bill or Bluey from his army days. Bill and his brother Norrie rode and raced a lot. Bill came 3rd in the 1928 Beverley and 5th in 1936 and was still racing in the Collie Races until he was 92. He finally threw the towel in at 101 in 2017. He was healthy and sharp of mind until he passed. The photo is of Bill in 2010.

I started riding when I was 5 years old. My dad got this old bike from somewhere and gave it to me. I was thrilled to bits. Had to pump the tyres up about every 2 kilometres and the chain used to come off every so often. When I was 9 years old my dad showed me a piece of land - 3 acres - and said if I liked to clear it he would crop it for me. So I cleared it with a little help from Pat and De [sic]. I got $18 for my wheat and spent it all on my bike, a new chain, new tyres and tubes, new seat and new coat of paint. I was a millionaire and thrilled to bits. Could ride the 12 kilometres to Pop’s without stopping.

When I was 12 dad sold the farm and bought a small farm. 700 acres at East Pingelly. He built a house on it and we went to Petercarring [sic] school. I was very friendly with Bill Nairn. At Pop’s we used to ride a lot together. He came down to our farm to stay and we were going to ride to Pingelly, 15 kilometres away, but half way there I got a puncture. So we pulled the tyre off and got a heap of straw out of the paddock and rammed as much in the tyres as we could and rode home.

I left school when I was 13 and a half as it was depression time and things were hard. Dad had a clearing contract near Maurumbin [sic] so I went to work with him. I got no money, just my working clothes. So I didn't do much riding then.

I rode in my first show race when I was just 17. Borrowed Keith Hoad’s bike and I started from limit mark or front and won my first race. The next time I rode in the show race I was 20 and rode off scratch mark and won easily.

When I was 17 I got a job on a farm east of Kojonup for a dollar a week. I had a good bike by then so decided to ride to Kojonup. I left Pingelly at 3 o'clock in the morning and rode all day on corrugated gravel roads. I got to the farm at 5 o'clock and had rode 200 kilometres that day. My wrists were all swollen from the corrugations but I slept well that night.

I left Kojonup after a while and got a ride on a truck to Perth, my first trip to Perth at 17 and the first time I had seen the sea. I got a job between Wyalkatchem and Koorda but didn't stay long. I eventually got a job at Koorda with Jim Howe, an ex-Pingelly chap. I was pretty happy there until I went up to Bencubbin and rode in the show race. They decided to start a cycle club there. Also Norrie (brother Norrie Taylor) was working there so I moved to a job at Bencubbin and rode in some races there. On New Year's Day they had a race from Bencubbin to Gabbin. About 20 kilometres. Myself and another chap were sprinting to the finish for second place and the spectators got a bit excited and one chap stopped for a better view. My handlebars hooked in his pocket and ripped his trousers wide open. I crashed and smashed my front wheel and lost a lot of skin. They had another race around Gabbin. I was able to borrow a front wheel and finished second.

After harvest the chap I was with offered me a permanent job so I decided to go back to Pingelly for a holiday. I left his place at 3 o'clock in the morning and headed for Pingelly from Bencubbin to Tammin and then south towards Quairading.

Wasn't sure where I was so called into the farm and he was a bachelor about 15 kilometres from Quairading. He gave me a cuppa and a snack and also offered me a job on his farm that I didn't take. Could have been alright. He was going to town so gave me a lift to Quairading. I had very little money but had a cheque my boss had paid me. I tried to cash it at the hotel but they wouldn't cash it. I was dog tired and really hungry so went down to the railway yards, found a truck with a tarpaulin in it and wrapped the tarp around myself and spent the night there. I woke fairly early and headed for Pingelly. I eventually arrived at Aldersyde and found I still had 10 cents left.

I had no tea or breakfast but I was also very thirsty. I went into Ellingham's shop at Aldersyde and bought a bottle of cool which got me to Pingelly by midday. I had travelled 250 kilometres in a day and a half. I was a very tired and hungry boy.

I didn't ever go back to Bencubbin but got a job at Narembeen. This was in 1935. I found Narembeen the most friendly places I was ever at. I guess the fact that I played football and joined the cycle club made it easier. I went there as a complete stranger but soon got to know a lot of people. Used to go to a dance on Saturday night, go in and ride in a race Sunday morning, then play football on Sunday afternoon.

In those days every town in the wheatbelt a cycle club had. Today they are all gone. Each club used to have an annual track meeting with riders coming from everywhere, including top riders from Perth and Fremantle. During my stay at Narrabeen, I rode in track meetings at Kondinin, Narembeen, Bruce Rock and Merredin.

Because the top state riders were always there, I only ever got second places. I left Narembeen after 12 months and came back to Pingelly and rode off scratch there for about 3 years. Pingelly had an open road race one year. Some Perth riders came up including Ray Barron who had been W.A. Junior Champion.

I rode off scratch with him and I got first and fastest time. Well, his father was still lecturing him an hour later, where he lost ground and where he should have made up ground etc.

About this time I decided I would ride in the Beverley to Perth bike race. I was trapping rabbits for a living so did very little training. A fortnight before the race I stopped trapping so I could do some training. I was 20 years old and fairly fit. On the Tuesday before the race I decided to ride from Pingelly to Perth to see how I would go. Between Beverley and York [there was a group of riders] so I joined them. In that group was Ron Logue who won the year before and the father of that lass that wrote to me recently. Also John Riley who finished second.
John Riley also won two Collie-Donnybrooks during his riding career. We went to Perth on Tuesday, rode back to Beverley on Thursday where the Collie boys stayed. I rode on to Pingelly then back to Beverley on Friday, rode in the race on Saturday and back to Pingelly on Monday. Did about 800 kilometres that week.

I had a room in the hotel at Beverley on the Friday night and shared with the chap from Kalgoorlie. He was George Hebbard which didn't mean much to me until next day. He rode off scratch and punctured in the race, mended the puncture and still got fastest time which gave the title of W.A. Road Champion. Later on he was to have three sons play league football for West Perth so obviously they weren't interested in bike riding.

After the Beverley to Perth I made two trips back to Narembeen. 320 kilometres a trip. The last trip I did I rode into a howling wind from Corrigin and was about done. When I got there I walked into the Hotel. Some of the chaps I knew were there and said you look as though you could do with a beer. They handed me this nice cold beer and the next thing I woke up in a bed. A rather foolish thing to do.

I think most of what I did when I came back to riding is in my photos, but briefly, I rode with W.A. Vets for 7 years, I rode in two Northam to Perth’s, one Thornlie- Pinjarra & return, two Narrogin-Wagin and return, three different Rockingham races, numerous races in Perth Metro area, two Collie-Donnybrooks and return races, to Lowey Memorial races at Collie and three track meetings on Collie Velodrome. My first racing bike cost $3, my last one cost $800. Happy days.

P.S. I forgot to mention that before I rode in the Beverley to Perth my dad tried to talk me out of it as he said I wasn't fit enough. Then when I finished 5th out of 108 riders he was so pleased. When I got home he was so excited and couldn't stop shaking my hand. And my dad never got very excited about anything.

Malvern Star Cinema Slides

Who knew? - cinema slides actually predate cinematography. Before the invention of motion picture photography ‘lantern slides’ were used for lectures and entertainment. Early movies were short by today’s standards and lantern slides were projected between features as intermission titles or advertising.

Even as motion advertising became available the lower production costs of cinema slides saw them remain in widespread use in Australia through most of the 20th century.

A cinema slide consists of an image supported on a glass substrate or base (82mm, 3½ inches square). Sometimes a second piece of glass protects the surface of the image. Aperture masks, cut from thin card were employed in a variety of shapes. 

These Malvern Star ads from a club member’s collection incorporate photographic imagery overpainted by hand with dye. They would have been distributed to bike shops around the country who could localise the advertisement by simply adding their name in the blank box at the bottom of the slide.

John McGrath - Oral History

At our January 2021 meeting club members were treated to a talk given by John McGrath. John, now 92, has never owned a car or had a driver’s license.

In the late 1940’s while an amateur at the Canterbury Club in Sydney he struck up a friendship with visiting WA State Champion Geoff Baker.

I got to know him really well and he said, “If you ever decide to come over to the West, let me know and I’ll fix you up at our place with board with mum and dad. I don’t know what made me – probably I’d always wanted to come over here and have a look at it but it seemed so distant. It was like another world. People used to talk about West Australia over there as though it was another country. It was so isolated, even then in 1949 it was very isolated. So I decided to come over here and I arrived by ship on the Strathaird.

John stayed in Perth for two years, joining the Fremantle Amateur Cycling Club and was chosen for the WA State Team in 1951. In 1952 he returned home to ailing parents after competing in the Australian Titles in Goodwood, South Australia, again as part of the State Team.

He came back to Perth in 1960, this time crossing the country not by boat but by bike. Setting out on track singles (lightweight tubular racing tyres) he was obliged to make some changes to his touring setup;

Once you got past from Ceduna it was all dirt. I had no idea what I was up against. By the time I got to Melbourne I had to get most of them repaired and by the time I got to Adelaide, they were going again. When I got to Ceduna I stopped at this bike shop for a bit of advice about how the roads were and he said, “You’re not going to ride on that?” “Yeah, why?” “You won’t get round the corner on that bike.” I said, “No?” He said, “No, not on those tyres; no way.” I said, “Well, what do you reckon?” He said, “You need a pair of heavy duty wheels to get through.” So I said, “Okay.” He only had 26 inch wheels so that meant my brakes were no good, they wouldn’t fit onto the wheel and he said, “You don’t need brakes. It’s all flat.” It was nearly all flat except coming down to Eucla! There’s this great big hill – a joke! Straight down, no turns or anything, straight down then flattens out and I thought, “Well one thing, we’re not going to run into a car.” So I just sat on it and let it go. That was the only hill in over a thousand miles. 

John joined the Midland Cycling Club and started racing a variety of road and track events including the first 6 Day Race held at Lake Monger. He was sponsored by Swansea, initially riding his Bobby Jones (NSW) built frame painted as a Swansea. The steep track at Lake Monger demanded a frame that would allow better clearance for turning pedals at low speeds, Swansea built him an appropriate frame finished in copper plate.

It (the 6 Day Race) was a wonderful experience. Once I rode one, really I didn’t want to ride another one; because for one thing I considered myself a bit old for it. They ride longer these days but, how old was I? Thirty, thirty-three, something like that; and that would’ve been considered as 'getting on a bit’. The young ones, 19 or 20 year olds used to give you a bit of a serve. The Victorians controlled the race. It was a set-up, you know, and was really determined by  Bill Long. He was the organiser and in charge of the event. If he said that one team was going to win tonight, well, that was the way it went. It wasn’t what a lot of people thought.

In 2015 the City of Belmont made an oral history recording with John. John and his family have lived in Belmont since the early 1960’s. As John’s reminiscences didn’t extend to much about Belmont the city never published them. The City of Belmont and John have kindly allowed the WAHCC to publish the transcript of his interview which can be downloaded here as a pdf. John also kept a number of photographs and race programmes, copies of which can be found on the club’s Flickr album.

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John McGrath at Lidcombe Oval 1947. Riding off the scratch mark with Mervyn O’Connor.

Australian Championships L-R Bernie Fudger, Noel Davey, F. Jennings and John McGrath.

1961 start of the Douglas Jones road race. L- R John McGrath, Graham Bilton, unknown

Cover of the 1961 Perth 6 Day programme

Overlanding - A Cycle Tour From Melbourne To Coolgardie

Daniel Edward Sheehan was born at Lancefield, Victoria in 1864 and died at Hawthorn in 1928 aged 63 of diabetes.

The following article was published in the Western Mail published 19 May, 1899.

OVERLANDING - A CYCLE TOUR FROM MELBOURNE TO COOLGARDIE - 1899

Mr. D.E. Sheehan, whose photograph we publish, gives the following opinion of “overlanding”. Leaving Melbourne on March 14th [1899], I rode against a parching “three quarter face” wind, which opposed me until well over the South Australian border. I travelled via Geelong, Camperdown, and Coleraine, over excellent roads through fertile and pretty country, which, however, is mostly locked up in large estates.

On the fifth day I reached Mount Gambier, a very pretty old South Australian town, surrounded by rich agricultural land. The picturesque Blue Lake, situated on an adjacent range of hills, is a sight to be remembered.

Beside the precipitous bank is a monument to Australia’s “sad, sweet poet,” Adam Lindsay Gordon. It seems incredible that even this daring man could have leaped a horse over the precipice known as Gordon’s Leap. Beyond Gambier the road to Adelaide runs north-easterly through some 150 miles of pastoral country, rabbit infested, lonely, and desolate looking. On the coast, about three miles distant, one can often hear the meaning of Gordon’s -

White steeds of the ocean, that leap with a hollow and wearisome roar
On the bar of ironstone steep, a cable’s length from the shore.

The pipeclay lake beds alongside the sometimes bad road are reputed to be excellent for cycling when dry, but the showery weather which prevailed prevented me from using them.

After passing Wellington the country improves, and is well settled, and after some stiff hill-climbing and descending one reaches Adelaide. From the metropolis northward to Port Augusta an excellent road traverses 220 miles of prosperous farming land, with small townships at short intervals.

When 28 miles from Augusta the front fork of my bicycle snapped while crossing a gully. I sought the assistance of a roadside settler, who, with a few old tools and much ingenuity, contrived an excellent splint, and then he hospitably invited me to share his Sunday dinner, which had been kept waiting meantime. Being unable to find anyone in Port Augusta who could repair the damaged arm I took it to a blacksmith, who patched it up with a piece of an old shovel blade.

I then turned westward through the dessert country with the motto “Coolgardie or bust”, nailed, so to speak, to the mast. Considering the immense extent, the country from here to the WA goldfield is of much the same pastoral character, barren looking and fairly level with monotonous miles of scrub, saltbush, and

scrubby eucalyptus, alternating with patches of sparsely grassed plain, and frequent patches of sand.

There are sheep stations of immense area at wide intervals, but they carry only from three to ten thousand sheep. Much of the station work, including the shearing, is done by aboriginals.

On Eyre’s Peninsula a succession of rainless years has driven many of the squatters from their holdings, which are now given over to rabbits and dingoes. Eyre’s Sand Patch, 165 miles west of Eucla, consists of 30 miles of loose fine sand, on which cycling is impossible, and a speed of two miles per hour fair walking.

When the tide is out nine miles of good riding may be had along the beach, which the road skirts. The overland route is fairly well watered by Government cemented tanks, roofed over to protect their being patronised by suicidally inclined rabbits and dingoes. The trouble is that the traveller is never sure whether the tanks ahead contain any water.

About Denial Bay an attempt was made to establish an agricultural settlement, but the drought has nearly ruined those unlucky farmers. An enterprising politician who started to canvass his constituency hereabout on a bicycle, got bushed, and after suffering much from thirst, was found “speechless”, but otherwise little the worse for adventure.

On two occasions, at Madura and at Fraser’s Range, I lost a day through taking a wrong track. The overlander should beware of the fiend who tells him, “You can’t go wrong old man, you can’t make a mistake if you try”. From what I heard every overlanding cyclist has taken a wrong track at one place or another. and three cyclists have been reduced to abandoning their machines.

Beside the track, near the head of the Bight, a mound of sand marks the last camp of an unfortunate swagman who perished from thirst last summer. My cyclemeter registered the total distance covered between Melbourne and Coolgardie, as 2,200 miles, and I was 38 days making the journey, including time lost. My longest day’s ride was 120 miles from Nullarbor to Eucla, and the longest stage without water 60 miles. My bicycle was geared to 60 and weighted, stripped, 33lb., kit and tools 10lb. extra.

I bought the bike, when new, five years ago for £15, from a well-known Melbourne firm of universal providers. I had it fitted with new tyres before starting on this tour, and it has proved to my satisfaction that a low priced bike is not necessarily an inferior one. I confess that I was not sorry when the tour was finished, and have no intention of cycling it again.

Collected and corrected from Trove by Daniel’s grand niece Lynnette Hammet.

Scarlet Runner made by William Furniss from 1921

“The Extra Special Light Racing Scarlet Runner De-Luxe is beautifully finished, built of the best steel fittings, ornamental head lugs, Dunlop narrow nickel-plated shell or wood rims, double- butted spokes, Baylis and Wiley hubs, Williams chain wheel and cranks, racing pedals with toe clips and straps, Mansfield racing or sprinting saddle, genuine Major Taylor handlebars, three-spiers roller chain, Dunlop speed tyres and tubes, all lugs and ends nickel plated; enamelled all colours and flamboyant transparent colours, nicely lined, with a complete set of floral transfers.  Genuine B.S.A. parts.  Nothing but the best material used.” 

From an 1930 advertisement for the Scarlet Runner

The Scarlet Runner was one of Western Australia’s more expensive bicycles during the early 1920’s but there was high demand for the three different versions available and often up to a three month wait list prior to racing season.  In 1925 Furniss was building 100 light weight wood-rim Scarlet Runners for the race season and built-to-order bicycles were also available.  The three versions of Scarlet Runner were:

The All-Service Scarlet Runner  £11:10:0

The Competitive Light Racer Scarlet Runner  £12:10:0

The Extra Special Light Racer Scarlet Runner   £18:10:0

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William John “Cocky” Furniss was born in Wanneroo in 1885 and raised on his father’s poultry farm.  His father was a farmer, builder and inventor with several very successful patents for a rabbit trap, improved kettle and self-lock fence dropper.

William was a keen cyclist and was road racing competitively in 1908.  Around 1920 he opened his first ‘Beach Bike Shop’ opposite the Cottesloe Beach Station where he was selling new BSA and second hand bicycles, accessories and repairs which included oxy-welding, soldering, brazing, enamelling and repairs to lawn mowers, gramophones, primus stoves, prams and musical instruments.  Within a year William was manufacturing two of his own bicycle brands:  the ‘Scarlet Runner’ and ‘WA’ bicycles.  The Scarlet Runner was the most successful brand.

The Scarlet Runner was used by many riders and William donated prizes for races including lap prizes of acetylene gas lamps.

William Furniss built a double story brick building at 45 Bayview Terrace, Claremont in 1927-28 called ‘Furniss Building’.  The lower level housed Furniss Cycle Works (and Garage) as well as two other stores which he leased out.  The upper level had a meeting room which was booked by local clubs and charities and residence for his wife Mercy (nee Newton a well-known family from Mandurah) and children.  The Claremont-Cottesloe Cycle Club would meet at the Furniss Building prior to their races.  Furniss chained tools in front of his shop so children could repair their own bicycles.

The building had a life-sized man in sheet metal seated on a bicycle and mounted on a beam over the laneway beside the shop.  The brightly painted figure with glass sauce bottle stoppers for eyes signified the motto “A Square Man for a Square Deal”.  The Square Man sign is now in the Claremont Museum.

The Furniss family purchased a parcel of land between Mandurah and Pinjarra in the 1920’s which was promoted extensively in newspaper advertisements as ‘Furnissdale’ and offered free camping along the shores of the Serpentine River.  During holiday season hundreds of people would camp at Furnissdale. In 1950 the land was subdivided and riverside blocks sold.  The suburb was officially was named Furnissdale in 1968.

William died from polycystic kidney disease in 1933 aged 48 years.  His son Albert William Furniss and father continued to run Furniss Cycle Works for many years after William’s death.  The building was eventually sold and subsequently demolished in 1973.

No Scarlet Runners are held by members of the WAHCC, however, a head badge is held in Merv Thompson’s collection.

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Five Sparkling Swans

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, particularly when the thoroughbred in question is a Swansea 5-Swan. I was extremely grateful to be offered this racehorse as a restoration project. However, the old girl required a fair bit of dentistry to bring her out of retirement.

This Swansea is a 1941 model. A large frame with a 23.5 inch seat tube. The geometry suggested a track heritage, with a steep head angle of 78 degrees. The seat angle is relaxed at 70 degree, common for the day.

When I received the bike in 2014, it appeared rideable. The 52t Williams chain set, hollow TDC bottom bracket axle, Brampton headset and dome top seat post were clearly original, so were preserved, polished and remain on the bike today. The other components were modern add-ons, and were given away. The wheels went to another Swansea restoration project, and got that bike back on the road. That small gift repaid itself many times over, but more on that later.

The frame was powder coated yellow when I got it. This thick lacquer had done a good job of protecting the frame from the ravages of coastal living for many years. However, it also hid a troubled past. Close inspection revealed a bent top tube. The ATP stem, almost certainly original to the bike, was also twisted. Gentle sanding of the top tube revealed crash damage, a handlebar strike to the top tube, maybe a racing accident on a velodrome. The large dent had been well repaired with braze, but the frame was twisted. Shot blasting to remove the rest of the powder coat found further damage. There was long crack through the length of the indent in the non-drive chain stay. The frame was now clearly unrideable.

I now found myself at that well know fork in the road of restoration. We have all been there and the choice can be difficult. Turn left for preservation, or right for complete reconstruction. With the frame bent, cracked, and with no original paint to left save, the direction was clear…I put her out on the curb for the hard waste collection. 

Only joking. A bike like this was too important. So I began the process of trying to discover what a new Swansea would have looked like in 1941. What components were needed to get this bike back to “As new” condition? I also sold one of my kidneys.

Original printed information about Swansea is not easy to come by, particularly regarding paint. I visited quite a few Swansea’s with original paint, to get some ideas, but their art deco styling wasn’t for me. I did have some luck along the way though. During a visit to see the Swansea at Mercer Cycles in Freo, I got chatting with the owner. He was selling a collection of vintage bike parts for a friend, and let me buy an identical pattern ATP stem and handlebar to replace the damaged one that came with the bike. After a further six months of getting nowhere, a chance conversation at the club house changed everything. A guy living a few streets from me was after a pair of wheels for a Swansea he had just found. I offered him my wheels and we arranged to meet. It was love at first sight…not with Gary, but with the paintwork on his bike. 

Things were moving again now. Peter Campbell carefully repaired the frame. The top tube and chain stay were replaced. Also, the drunken attempt to drill a hole in the fork crown for a front brake was filled. Cameron Smith resprayed the frame and hand painted the pin stripes and artwork, copying the original design from Gary’s bike.

The search for components was now focused on wheels. Another six months of eBay watching went by, but no Australian made hubs came into VEW. So I settled on a pair of drilled Harden “bacon slicers”. I had read somewhere that 500 pairs of these were exported to Australia, and that was good enough for me. I had my heart set on wooden rims, so a pair of Cherchio Ghisallo pista rims were ordered from Italy. These are still made by hand in the traditional way on the shores of Lake Como. Poetry to my ears and eyes, but doggerel to my wallet.

Harden Hubs are drilled for 15g spokes, but these are not easy to find in Australia. The thought of drilling out the hubs to 14g was too frightening. So I called on some old friends in the UK to help me out. Soon, shiny new stainless steel 15/17g double butted DT Swiss spokes had made their journey half way around the world to my shed. When they arrived they didn’t fit. They seemed to be too long. I was furious with myself. What had I done wrong? Ghisallo rims are supplied with special 1 inch nipples, longer than usual, to pass right through the thicker wooden rim. But what I hadn’t realised was that these nipples also have an unusually long 15mm internal thread. Standard DT Swiss nipples have an 8mm internal thread. DT Swiss spokes have a 10mm thread. I had measured up for a standard wheel build, with the spoke ends aiming to reach the nipple head. But this could not happen with the longer nipples, as the extended internal thread fouled the spoke, locking them up 5mm short of the nipple head. Having struggled to get any spokes at all, I decided to drill out the extra 7mm of thread from the inside of each of the 72 long nipples, a task I performed with a Dremel and X-rated language. In the end, the decision was a good one. In fact, the spokes were the correct length, and the wheel build was easy after that. The rear wheel was finished with an 18t BSA sprocket to give a reasonable gear.

The bike is dressed with gum walled tubulars, a honey coloured Brooks Professional saddle, a Brooks chrome seat clamp, Chater Lea Sprint pedals and Brooks leather toe straps. Newbaum yellow cotton bar tape was treated with about 25 coats of shellac (pre-mix bottle from Bunnings), until the colour matched the saddle. Cork bar ends came from the local brewing shop, only requiring a little bit of shaping for a good fit. These were also coated with shellac. New old stock 1940s chain tugs secure the rear wheel. Custom machined T-washers secure the front hub in the keyhole front fork dropouts. A modern silver chain was a practical choice, but looks fine. For a final flourish, and to complete this patriotic green and gold Swansea, the toe clips are Cyclo Oppy. 

The build has taken 5 years, on and off. The majority of the time was spent worrying about the correct thing to do. Some would say just ride it, and they have a good point; that is what a bike is for. But I felt a strong sense of responsibility to this bike, to the previous owner, to its history, to get it right… whatever that might mean. The bike now lives in the house; a stable is no place for a thoroughbred like this.

Will Bugg